Event Industry Fitness Blog

Now, a couple of my comments
below may get me in a bit of hot water with my catering clients and foodie
friends, but the nice thing about writing a blog is it is my thoughts and
opinions that I’m expressing to the public – so take it or leave it as you will. (Just keep reading… :-) )

First of
all (Disclaimer)
– I am not a certified nutritionist and my answer is not going to be
your eating plan, capiche? This is to answer a direct question from a
blog reader and industry pal.

Here is a
sample of my eating day:

I eat as
much organic and/or local grown produce as possible. I don’t eat fast food or drink soda. I’m not a big fan of fried food. I’m not a big fan of tray passed food or
buffet food either (reference note
above) and I eat before I
attend most association mixers so that I am not tempted to over eat food that
has a lot of I-don’t-know-what-I’m-eating
ingredients in it. My go-to breakfast is
a fruit bowl with plain Greek yogurt and cinnamon and my favorite snack is
either reduced-fat Wheat Thins with gruyere or provolone cheese or organic
peanut butter, a bowl of Kashi cereal or a handful of wasabi pea trail
mix.

Sounds too healthy?
Okay - - I do like to eat lunch
out a day or two a week. Such as: Sushi (love Harney Sushi rolls) or Tender
Greens (favorite salad is the tuna nicoise and I do eat the side piece of buttered and grilled bread!) I also like pizza – Pizza Port’s whole wheat
beer crust Monterey pizza is my favorite as is anything from Bronxs and Isola. I like pasta too – a good Bolognese sauce with
spaghetti works just fine for me and I absolutely am crazy for Bencotto in
Little Italy.

All right….most lunches consist of a big tuna or fresh roasted
chicken salad or sandwich (21 grain bread) or left-overs. But just
sayhing… I do cheat too and savor every second of it!

And I
cook. My husband/business partner and I
like to cook together. We tease each
other – he likes to cook heavy (i.e. sauces and butter with lots of dishes and
a long wait for dinner) and I like to cook light (i.e. fresh and light – but
will still use butter {just less of it} J
with less dishes and a faster time to eating!) So we have fun in the kitchen – and this is a
good thing because getting creative in the kitchen, whether you are a spouse or
partner or not, makes you find out ways to eat healthy and at home.

And I also
like to bake. When my mom and I opened a
coffee house years ago, she and I did all the baking. I’ve always been quite good at it. Cookies, cakes, pies…and I don’t skimp on the
butter and sugar nor use whole wheat pastry flour in lieu of white (though I do
use an organic bleached wheat flour from Whole Foods). I bake when I have company or for family
dinners and special occasions. So
sharing the baked goods means fewer leftover and less temptation the next day.

BUT I
STILL EAT IT!

I do not
believe in boxed anything. I also don’t eat processed foods. I look at labels – things with too many
ingredients scare me (especially when I’ve never seen the ingredient name
before) and avoid things with too much fat or sugar or salt. And I don’t believe in non-fat….

I
did. Because I think reduced fat or low fat is okay – we don’t need all the saturated fat items, but we
don’t need NON-fat either. Non-fat
equates to high sugar. I don’t know if
you’ve noticed, but sugar is why we put on weight. American’s eat a LOT of sugar.

And I DO
DRINK WINE! Now – that is my bane. Wine has sugar and it has alcohol…both not
too high on the “What-you-should-be-consuming”
scale. I don’t drink many bad things – no soda, no
processed/bottled juices, no hard alcohol, no beer (though that is only because I dislike the taste of beer) …. Coffee, water, wine…. My favorite things to
drink. All in moderation (except water –
I drink that all day long!) Coffee in
the a.m., wine in the p.m. I like to
savor that glass of vino – and it is definitely red!

Flavor
should be why you eat or drink something – and just slamming it down and not
enjoying it is a waste (i.e. what sooooo many of us do in the events industry
because we are on the go and on our feet for such long hours). Eat a protein bar if you want to not enjoy
yourself – lots of what you need in that thing – with no flavor, but will tie
you over and keep the catering event tempting foods at bay.

So –
getting the picture? Savor good food and take your time. Pause a moment to eat and try to make better
choices – don’t starve yourself then slam into your mouth whatever gets in your
hand.

On that
note, Isola sounds rather tempting today…..

You can take 10 minutes to work out
and you can take 10 minutes to pause and eat.
Enjoy the small things in life. A
few short minutes is all you need…